Bonbon voyage

For the last 107 years when the wind blows right on a working day the smell of chocolate pervades the air in Mansfield’s north end.

That’s the location of the six-story chocolate factory that’s passed through several ownerships since it was built in 1903 but initially bore the name of first owner and creator, Walter M. Lowney.

Lowney chocolates were a sweet success from the start.

Frank Mulligan

For the last 107 years when the wind blows right on a working day the smell of chocolate pervades the air in Mansfield’s north end.

That’s the location of the six-story chocolate factory that’s passed through several ownerships since it was built in 1903 but initially bore the name of first owner and creator, Walter M. Lowney.

Lowney chocolates were a sweet success from the start.

“He built his reputation on bonbons,” said Kevin B. McNatt, president of the Mansfield Historical Society.

And what a reputation.

A biographical sketch published in a local history book three years after his death in 1921 had this to say:

“It would be difficult to find in the state of Massachusetts a name more universally known the world over than that of Walter M. Lowney, the pioneer of packaged chocolate bonbons …”

Born in Sebec, Maine, Lowney began his professional life as a Bangor tailor, but migrated to Boston and developed a taste for the candy industry in 1879, when he joined the Philadelphia Candy Co.

His early work experience convinced him that fine chocolate bonbons – reasonably priced – could sell like hotcakes.

More than a century removed from that time, it might not appear that visionary a notion.

But back in the early 1880s, there were no chocolate-producing plants in all New England and outside the big cities; the sweet-toothed had access to few commercial confections. Those widely available were mostly stick candies and cough drops.

Lowney introduced the world to “pre-boxed bonbons,” making them much more accessible to increasing numbers of candy-craving consumers. Before Lowney’s innovation they were sold individually to candy stores or in bulk to wholesalers.

He put together the capital to start his first, four-story plant in Boston in 1883, and was innovative in the use of a lighter chocolate covering than the norm. Established folks in the trade were skeptical but the proof was in the bonbons.

They sold so well that larger quarters on Pearl Street had to be rented within the first three years.

The operation expanded onto an adjoining property a year later in 1887, and a third building had to be added in 1890.

Lowney’s reputation grew as a perfectionist, who wanted his product to be the best possible sweet available. His reputation as a friend to his workers also grew, a chief executive officer who would take a place alongside new members of the workforce and show them personally how to produce Lowney bonbons.

“He rolled up his sleeves and worked with his employees. He wanted the best chocolates and he didn’t want his employees to settle for anything less,” McNatt said.

In 1890 he established the company custom of hosting a formal dinner for the workers, the first at Boston’s Parker House.

He began work on a refrigeration plant the following year for the dipping rooms and storage – believed the first attempted by a candy concern – in part to cool work and storage rooms for the staff.

He began exporting Lowney’s bonbons around that time, the maiden voyage bearing a 19-case shipment to London.

Expansion was once again exponential. Lowney’s shipped 42,000 pounds of chocolates to U.S. Army expeditionary forces embroiled in the Philippine-American War in a single 1900 shipment.

Plants were opened in Chicago, and a larger plant on Commercial Street in Boston opened in 1897.

Still, that wasn’t enough so Lowney looked for greener pastures elsewhere – literally because he also wanted to open his own dairy farm to supply his plant with milk and cream.

Those greener pastures were found in Mansfield, where work began on the six-story plant in April 1903. Production began in September of the same year. The Lowney Dairy Farm also came into existence.

A subsidiary company was formed in Canada in 1906 where the name Lowney is still associated with fine chocolates.

To describe Lowney as a paternal presence in his adopted town and to his workers may be an understatement.

His public works spurred jealous comments from residents of less fortunate neighboring communities, McNatt said.

“They would put it down, and call Mansfield ‘Lowneytown.’”

Though not meant as a compliment, the description wasn’t far off.

Lowney built housing for his workers, many of whom were Italian immigrants from Boston, starting with seven, two-apartment houses. Attracting Italian workers to the plant led to the growth of the Italian community in the town.

Andrew J. Todesco, a fourth generation Mansfield resident, and Mansfield Historical Society secretary, said his grandparents said they met working at the plant.

Word has passed down through the generations that Lowney was indeed well liked by his workers. “They thought highly of him,” Todesco said.

And for tangible reasons.

His plant had a profit-sharing system, which must have been a boon for the workers because it began paying dividends less than a year after opening. “He was very progressive,” McNatt said.

He built the “clubhouse” for recreation, which included bowling alleys, billiard and pool tables, a reading room, locker room and showers. It fronted recreational fields for workers, including a baseball diamond for the company team, “The Lowneys.”

“If you had a good right arm, you might find yourself getting hired at the chocolate factory,” McNatt said.

Needing a spot for more sophisticated recreational activities, Lowney built the “Tavern,” starting construction in 1907 and finishing the edifice in 1909. It became known as “the roadside Waldorf,” McNatt said.

It was not only a nightspot but served as his winter home and as elegant digs for visiting clients.

A “dumpy” area across from the Tavern was something of an eyesore, so Lowney bought it, spent more than $14,000 to transform it into a town common and then donated it to Mansfield. It became known as “Lowney Park.”

He built the First National Bank building and served as its director for 15 years.

Lowney died of heart failure in 1921 at the age of 65, and the plant passed to his wife and family and then onto a bank in the early 1930s.

While Lowney had passed away, the plant he started continued to prosper.

The Rexall Drug Co. acquired it in the 1930s to supply its soda fountains and shelves of confections, McNatt said.

The James O. Welch Co. purchased it in 1955 and turned out such familiar goodies as Peppermint Patties and Thin Mints.

In 1961 the Welch Co. purchased the 40-year-old Merckens Chocolate Co. of Buffalo, N.Y., and in a bold move reminiscent of Lowney, the company successfully transported half a million pounds of Merckens’ machinery to the Mansfield plant.

The Welch Co. joined with National Biscuit Co., better known in its later incarnation as Nabisco, in 1963.

Grace Cocoa bought the Merckens’ brands and the Mansfield plant from Nabisco in 1990, and sold it to current owner ADM Cocoa, a subsidiary of multi-national conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland Co., in 1997.

The six-story plant continues to overlook the town more than 10 decades after it first began mass-producing prize-winning bonbons.

Residents and visitors can still enjoy the wafting scent of chocolate on workdays when the wind blows right.

Scents have been proven to be a powerful memory trigger, but memories of the sweet times at the former Lowney chocolate plant will soon have to be summoned without that familiar cocoa scent’s help.

ADM has announced the plant will be closing.

According to a company statement released in late October, “ADM has informed employees at its Mansfield, Mass. cocoa facility that the company intends to close the location in the third quarter of 2010. Production at the Mansfield facility will be transferred to a new ADM cocoa facility in Hazleton, Pa. Some of the 83 employees at the Mansfield facility may have the opportunity to transfer to the Hazleton plant; the exact number has not yet been determined. ADM will provide a severance package, including job transition support and employment assistance, to affected employees.”

A company spokesman said an exact closing date has yet to be set.

(Information in this article was provided through the Mansfield Historical Society and “A History of Bristol County Massachusetts, Volume III,” published in 1924 by the Lewis Historical Publishing Co., and edited by Frank Walcott Hutt, secretary of the Old Colony Historical Society.”)